Andros Townsend’s Girlfriend Thought He Skipped Training, But It Was Actually In Football Manager

Andros Townsend has told a hilarious story of how his partner thought he'd been fined for missing training - but in reality it was just a Football Manager alert.

The Everton winger was a Tottenham player back in September 2015 when his long-term girlfriend, Hazel, sent him a WhatsApp message asking why he'd received a fine as punishment for missing training.

A baffled Townsend, who recalled the story on talkSPORT, asked his better half exactly what she was going on about. Only to receive a screengrab that originated from the management game. Oh Hazel.

"I get a text from her one day and I receive a screenshot from Twitter," explained Townsend on live radio.

"As you do, she was searching my name on Twitter and [news of] a fine came up: 'Andros Townsend accepts his fine for reporting late to training'.

"So her mind is going off; if he wasn't at training and he wasn't at home then where was he?

"It could have been a real sticky one!"

Fortunately, however, when he saw the screenshot, Detective Townsend was able to piece together exactly where this supposed 'news' had originated from.

"She's messaged me and it turns out the screengrab is from the popular video game Football Manager," he added.

"Someone's obviously posted it on Twitter having a laugh on Football Manager - and she's thought it was real."

We actually have some sympathy with Townsend's partner Hazel here. Any true Football Manager addict know that - at the best of times - it can blur the lines between game and reality.

There's still several hundred aged wonderkids we're convinced were amazing in real life, solely because of their heroics for us on FM. (Cough, Tonton Zola Moukoko.)

So no wonder Hazel - when she saw news of the fine and how Townsend (the FM version) had "acknowledged that his unprofessional behaviour is unacceptable" - leapt to the wrong conclusion.

At least the England international was able to explain things to his good lady and relieve her of any concerns that he was living a double life.

Except, of course, in the world of FM where there's simply know excuse for the purely digital Andros's terrible attitude to training.

All imagery: PA Images/Twitter